Regret
by TryDefyingGravity
Summary: TWOSHOT He was scared too. Scared he would be revealed as a fraud, a con man. And for that reason, and that reason only, he spoke those fatal words that he regretted for the rest of his life.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine

Summary: ONESHOT He was scared too. Scared he would be revealed as a fraud, a con man. And for that reason, and that reason only, he spoke those fatal words that he regretted for the rest of his life.

Regret

The Wizard couldn't help but stare as the girl entered the room. She was small, with a blue and white checked dress on. Not the usual look for a saviour (or murderer, depending which way you look at it). And she had _those _shoes. Those beautiful, ruby red shoes. Glinda the Good had 'magicked' them – her words, not his. Those shoes that could take him anywhere he wanted in the world. Maybe even home.

He missed home. He would never admit it to anyone. Here, they thought he was wonderful and loved him for his ideas and the idea of a Ruler of Oz. Back home, they loved him for who he was. Wonderful was all very well, but it didn't bring you happiness.

'I am Oz, the great and terrible.'

He remembered saying those words to the green girl, who had wandered into his life three years before. The look of hope on her face was equal to the expression on the girl's face in front of him. Elphaba had come to help people. Why had this girl come?

'Who are you, and why do you seek me?'

The girl was trembling. Elphaba hadn't seemed scared at first, but she couldn't speak to him. It came upon Glinda to make Elphaba speak.

'My name is Dorothy, sir, and this is my dog, Toto.'

'_Elphaba Thropp, your terribleness.'_

_He turned to the blonde girl beside Elphaba. 'And you must be?'_

'_Glinda. The Ga is silent.'_

He shook his head, pushing the memory from his mind. He sighed and listened to Dorothy.

'I want to go home.'

Selfish child. She wanted something for herself. Elphaba had come to report strange happenings throughout Oz. Admittedly, those strange happenings were his fault, but she didn't know that. Well, she didn't. She did now. And she had tried the levitation spell. That all went wrong. Why? _Why _had he called those monkeys _spies_? He should have known that those words would push her away from him, before she had become close.

'_I'm here… we're here to alert you that something bad is happening…_

She was so honest. She was good. He had lied, he had cheated. He had got where he was through luck, and a wonderful right hand woman. He was nowhere near honest. He could barely be considered good.

'You want to go home?' His voice boomed out across the room. _Selfish child. Selfish, selfish girl._ So different to Elphaba.

'Yes sir. To Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry.'

'Well, if I do something for you, you must do something for me.'

'_Of course, you must prove yourself'_

'_How?' Never had someone so green looked so… innocent. _

_Madame Morrible had entered the room, her head held high. She always had commanded respect._

'_I believe you're well acquainted with my new Press Secretary.'_

_The two girls looked shocked. Elphaba managed to stammer 'P… Press Secretary.' _

_Morrible smirked. 'Yes dearies. I've risen up in the world. You'll find the Wizard is a very generous man. If you do something for him, he'll do much for you.' _

Dorothy looked shocked. 'Me sir? But what can I do? I'm only a girl.'

'_What do you want me to do?'_

Typical Elphaba, always ready to prove herself. She would try anything to achieve her dreams. And he had failed her. She had been right of course. He did need enemies, and spies, and cages. He needed _her_. Someone with power. Goodness knew she had power. Power that might be turned against him, so he needed to harness it.

She was gone now. He couldn't ask her to help him. He's tried, and failed, twice. He wasn't one for making the same mistake three times. He had almost persuaded her. He _had _persuaded her. He had set the monkeys free, desperate to keep this unknown power by his side. And then she saw the quivering sheet, thrown unceremoniously over that Goat.

_Elphaba knelt beside the figure, no doubt convinced it was a terrified monkey. She reached out her hand, touching the sheet._

'_No, no. Please!' She just gave him a queer look and pulled away the cover. She gasped, and stifled a sob. 'Doctor Dillamond? No! It can't be. Doctor Dillamond!'_

_The Wizard closed his eyes. No no no! It was all going wrong, _again!_ He spoke weakly. 'We couldn't continue… we couldn't let him… we couldn't keep letting him speak out.' He put his hand on Elphaba's shoulder and she threw it off, disgusted. She shook the Goat's shoulder._

'_Doctor Dillamond. Are you alright? It's me, Elphaba.' No response. 'Don't you remember me?' She gasped again, struck suddenly by the truth. 'Can't you… can't you speak?' _

_She glared at the Wizard, tears in her eyes, but angry tears all the same. 'We have nothing in common! I'm nothing like you. And I never will be!' _

'_Guards. Guards!'_

Two words he had lamented instantly. He could have let her go. Then he would have kept his captain of the guards, and Glinda wouldn't have been furious with him afterwards. Morrible had, of course, sent a weather spell to Munchkinland, causing that fatal cyclone. Well, fatal for the Wicked Witch of the East. What was her name? Nessarose. That was it.

Dorothy was waiting.

'You killed the Witch of the East didn't you? I'm sure there's something you can do for me.' He paused, thinking. She _was _a threat. Fiyero was dead, no doubt about it. She had no one to protect her. Was it really worth it? Perhaps she wouldn't do anything. She hadn't done anything yet. _Yet._ But there was always the risk, always the 'perhaps'. What if she did attack? She was stronger than him, both physically and magically. But there was no one to take her side. The whole of Oz was terrified of her. No one would help her. Did he really need to do it?

He was scared too. Scared he would be revealed as a fraud, a con man. And for that reason, and that reason only, he spoke those fatal words that he regretted for the rest of his life.

'Kill the Wicked Witch of the West.'

A/N: Another of my random oneshots. I've never really thought about the Wizard, so I thought I'd have a go. R and R. Please.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not mine

A/N: Idea given to me by LostOzian. Thanks Lost!

Regret – Part 2

Why had he said those words? He should have known that they would come back to haunted him. 'Kill the Wicked Witch of the West.' And now that girl was stood before him, holding the Witch's broomstick and her dog in the other hand. She looked shaken and shocked, but there was a glimmer of hope in her eyes. How could he help her now?

'I am Oz, the great and terrible. Who are you and why do you seek me?' Why was he saying that? He knew exactly who they were and why they were there. Still, he had to keep up appearances.

'The Witch of the West is dead, sir.' He paused. So it _was _true. The girl had killed his 'arch nemesis'.

'Excuse me sir, but where are you?' Dorothy was shading her face with her hand. That wasn't going to help. He was _invisible_. That wasn't an unusual feeling. Back home, he had always felt invisible as a child. Third in the family and no particular talent. He was ignored. He was invisible.

Elphaba was the opposite. She was always noticed, always recognised because of her skin. What wouldn't he have given, then, to be different. He would have been noticed. Elphaba was the same, but she would have given anything for normal skin, to not be noticed.

At least when he arrived in Oz, he was instantly recognised. Back home, he wasn't acknowledged until he had left home, got a 'good' job and a girlfriend, to whom he was very close. He loved her, and she loved him. That was what, or rather who, he wanted to get home to. _Her._ Of course, he had had a love affair when arriving in Oz, in Munchkinland, but that wasn't love. That was lust.

'_Citizens of Oz, there is an enemy who must be found and captured.'_

Not any more. That enemy was dead. For good.

'I knew you could do it.' He forced a smile.

'_I knew you'd be back.'_

_Elphaba whirled around and glared at him. 'I didn't mean to harm you.'_

_He could see her preventing a sarcastic laugh. 'Well, you have, you have harmed me.'_

'_I realize that, and I regret it. Elphaba…'_

'Can I go home sir?' Darn. That stupid girl was still in here. Why couldn't she see, why hadn't she worked it out? He _couldn't _send her home. He wasn't a wizard. He shuffled his foot impatiently, waiting for the next woeful line.

'And can I have a brain?'

Toto was wriggling so Dorothy put him on the floor, where he immediately scampered over to the screen where the Wizard was and pounced on the protruding toe. Attempting to pull his new toy backwards, he knocked the screen over, and there was the Wizard, for all to see.

'You're… you're the Wizard?'

He chuckled nervously. 'Well yes m'dear. I am Oz, the great and… terrible.' He trailed off as Dorothy's eyes welled up.

'You're just a humbug. A little old man.' And once the tears started, they didn't stop. 'Now… now I'll never get home… to Aunt Em and she gets… she gets so worried about me… if I'm home late from school.'

Great. The child's aunt was a grown up and more annoying version of Dorothy. He rolled his eyes, but stepped forward to soothe her.

'_Nobody believed in you more than I did.'_

Now the past was coming to haunt him. 'I thought you could do it. I thought I'd be able to see them again.'

'_Nobody believed in you more than I did.'_

Stop it! He shook his head angrily, Elphaba was dead and he couldn't change that.

'I can still help you in some way. I come from near Kansas. I was a balloonist you see, in our world, and one day the balloon cable snapped and I was floated over here. I could maybe build a balloon, and you and I-'

Dorothy looked up, wiping her eyes. 'And Toto.'

'And Toto, can go back home. I'll still be able to help you, just not in the way you thought.'

Dorothy sniffed. Maybe that would do. 'But I thought you would just be able to magic me home. I believed you could.'

_Don't you think I wish I could? That I could go back to the time when I believed you really were wonderful? The Wonderful Wizard of Oz?_

'But what about my courage?'

'And my heart? I can't cope with being unable to love.'

'And what about my brain?!'

The Wizard closed his eyes. Why had he promised these people things? Because he thought that they wouldn't be able to kill her? Well, that theory was wrong.

'If you come here one by one, I'll give you the things you want.'

'Thank you, your Ozness.' They left, all except Dorothy.

'I'll never be able to believe in people again, you know. Not after the _Wonderful Wizard of Oz _lied to me.'

'My dear, we are more alike that you think.'

She just looked at him. 'No we're not.'

'Yes we are.' He pushed his point forward. 'We're both strangers to this land and we both want to get home. We both did terrible things to get here. We are alike.'

Dorothy thought about it, then nodded. 'I suppose we are similar. We both have people at home who love us. Who need us home.'

'_No. We have nothing in common. I am nothing like you and I never will be.' _

Dorothy left the room, missing Glinda the Good by minutes.

'This was Elphaba's' She went straight to the point as always. She held out a small green bottle. It looked familiar. He shrugged.

'What's that you say?'

'It was a keepsake. It was her mother's. She told me so herself. I've only seen a little green bottle like this one other time. It was right here, in this very room. You offered me a drink from it.'

He gasped and pulled his own bottle out of his pocket. He held it next to the one Glinda had in her hand. They were the same. He took a step back, shaking his head. 'No. No! It can't be.'

_Have another drink my dark eyed beauty _

_I've got one more night left here in town_

'Oh my Lord… I always longed… to be a father.'

Morrible had been listening, unbeknown to the other two, outside the door. Here she marched in. 'So that was it. That's why she had such powers. She was a child of both worlds.'

The Wizard began to sob.

'_No. We have nothing in common. I am nothing like you and I never will be.' _

He was a murderer. He had, indirectly, killed his own child.

'_No. We have nothing in common. I am nothing like you and I never will be.' _

Perhaps that was a good thing.

A/N: This isn't as good as part one, and it's a bit messed up, but it kinda shows how mixed up the Wizard's mind was.


End file.
